The invention involves an elastic body used in robotic applications.
At present movement sequences of technical appliances are operated by individual or several motors or actuators of diverse design. Alterations to the movement are obtained by the addition of e.g. gear systems, levers or pulleys, the movement sequences of which are determined during the construction stage and which can subsequently be changed only by reassembly. The movement sequence is determined by the construction.
In contrast to techniques designed by man, movements in nature are produced e.g. by muscles. These comprise a number of cells which can contract. In a working muscle, it is rare for all muscle cells to be active at the same time, but only those cells and as many as are required to execute the movement. As a result, a muscle is much more flexible and can also execute unpredicted movements. For the movement sequences are not determined in advance by the construction, but learned. The movement mechanism of a muscle works on a redundant principle, i.e. if some muscle cells fail, others will always contract in their place so that the overall muscle movement achieved is again correct.
If mechanical elements similar to muscles were available, it would be possible to produce a whole range of new appliances, such as imitation human limbs. Mechanical elements with movements determined not by their construction but only by a computer program which controls them, would solve many technical problems. This would apply especially if the task required of the mechanical element or of the appliance to which the element belongs were to change.
The demand for redundancy in technical systems is at present met by multiple installation in small numbers of the same constructional elements in these appliances. In that case, the elements themselves are not redundant. It would accordingly be desirable to have mechanical elements which are self-redundant.
In computer engineering algorithms have now been developed which are self-learning. The conversion of such algorithms into the mechanical world makes particular sense if the movements which can be executed by the appliances are not rigidly determined by their construction, but flexible.
Movement sequences of technical appliances are now determined by means of individual or small quantities of sensors. These sensors are located at important positions for the special control sequence of a special construction. Since the movement sequences are determined by the construction, the low number of fixed position sensors is adequate to register the movements.
That would not however be the case if one had mechanical elements the movements of which were not determined by the construction, but were flexible and determined by a computer algorithm. Registration of the momentary position and movement of such elements with conventional means would prove difficult if not possible and could even corrupt the character of the elements. For such an element, it would therefore be desirable to have a sensor system which could register all changes of shape and movement.
Man has created the technical environment in which he lives in such a way that his limbs allow him to act in an optimum fashion. Robots which take over work from man in this environment can work particularly rationally if they have a humanoid construction and move accordingly. For that reason, robot hands in particular must correspond to human hands.
Goal of the invention is to create an elastic body which can change its shape almost continually, which is controlled by computer algorithms and serves as a mechanical element, e.g. for generating power and motion. In that respect, the invention is also aimed at creating a type of organic body to the effect that the latter can be controlled by self-learning algorithms. The aim is furthermore to measure the change in shape of such a self-shaping element.
A further aim of this invention is to create robot hands with a master-slave control with their own integrated drive systems and with an elastic construction which makes them pleasant to humans.
A further goal is to achieve elastic robot limbs for the use in technical robots, toys or film-, show- and amusement-puppets and to create a master-unit for inserting the desired movements of such robots and puppets and to create a method of controlling. See GB-A-2,013,617 for further background. For more background understanding, see xe2x80x98Proceeding 1990 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automationxe2x80x99, Mai 1990, IEEE Computer Society, Fukuda et al.: Distributed Type of Actuators by Sma and its Application to Underwater Mobile Robotic Mechanism, pages 1316 to 1321.
A further aim of the invention is to provide a glove-device for inserting the movements of the human hand into the computer.
A further aim of the invention is to provide a method for controlling a robot hand with said new glove-device.
Although technical appliances operated by a number of actuators are known, such as that represented in DE 29 15 313, the actuators of that appliance are not however integrated in elastic material so that a number of non-predetermined movements can be executed but only those determined by the construction.
Although technical appliances which feature elastic bodies as an integral component are known, such as that represented in DE 40 33 089, they are not operated by a number of individually or group-triggered actuators. These too do not permit a variety of non-predetermined movements.
Although remote-control imitation hands are known, such as that represented in WO 90/04370, the number of control elements is so limited that these hands can execute only movements which on the one hand are predetermined by the construction and are on the other hand very abrupt. There is no measurement of the momentary position of the limb sections.